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How To Time Travel In Animal Crossing: New Horizons

While time travel carries a great deal of reward, it’ll also cause major issues in the game. Here’s what you need to know about Animal Crossing ’s time travel function.

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How do you time travel in animal crossing: new horizons.

Time travelling in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is fairly simple. Because the game operates on a real world clock, all you’ll need to do is change the time on your Nintendo Switch console.

Here’s how to do it:

• On the home screen, navigate to settings
• Select ‘System’ from the dropdown menu
• Select ‘Date and Time’ and choose the date you want to travel to

When you open Animal Crossing: New Horizons , you’ll wake up on your selected date.

What are the risks and rewards of time travel in Animal Crossing?

Time travelling in Animal Crossing lets you skip through the painful wait times of construction works and gain new features like terraforming faster. You’ll be able to breeze through the first few days of Animal Crossing: New Horizons ’ lengthy grind and get to work building your dream town.

You can even take advantage of the game’s banking system to gain millions of bells in interest — to do this, simply travel back in time (40+ years), deposit an amount in the bank and travel forward a few decades to claim your built up interest.

But for all its benefits, time travelling in New Horizons carries great risk particularly, when it comes to calendar events like Bunny Day, which runs from April 1-12.

To participate in the Easter-themed Bunny Day, your Nintendo Switch console will connect to the internet and verify your console’s date. If the dates don’t match up, you won’t be able to participate — but changing them back should be no issue if you’ve time travelled and still want to take part.

While you can easily travel back to the correct date with no consequences , note that your town will likely develop weed problems, any food left out will rot, cockroaches will invade your home and villagers will feel abandoned if you travel forward too far.

For the time poor, Animal Crossing ’s time travel function can be a godsend, but it also takes a lot of the fun and relaxation out of the game.

Should you choose to time travel, use your newfound power wisely.

This post originally appeared on Kotaku Australia .

Time Travel

Last updated: 3 April 2022

What is time travel?

Animal Crossing games are based on real time – for example, things that the game says will take one day truly take one real-life day to complete. “Time traveling” refers to the act of manually changing the time of the game to either be in the future or go back to the past.

Time traveling is not considered hacking. Time traveling also does not reverse/rewind progress. You keep all the progress, items, etc. that you’ve completed/acquired even if you time travel backwards.

How do I time travel?

To time travel, you must either close your game or go to the ‘Save Complete’ screen after doing a ‘Save and End’. You now need to change your date in your Switch settings:

• Open System Settings > System > Date and Time .
• Disable Synchronize Clock via internet if it is ON.
• Go to Date and Time and adjust to whatever time you would like.
• Return to the game and the new date & time will take effect!

What are the general effects of time traveling ( backward or forward )?

• Able Sisters’ mannequin will only change if you go outside of the week.
• Some items from Nook’s Cranny can only be purchased once a week. i.e. if you bought it once, it wouldn’t be restocked when time traveling to that day again in the same week.
• Saharah’s inventory does not change if you stay within the same week when time traveling forward or back. You have to go into another week for it to change.

What are the specific effects of time traveling forwards?

It is important to remember that time traveling forwards is no different than closing your game and then logging in at the new, manually input time. With that said, here are the effects of going forwards.

What are the specific effects of time traveling backwards?

If you time travel backward more than a day, it will be like going back to “fake” yesterday.

What happens to my other games when I time travel for AC:NH?

Time traveling for AC:NH will not affect other time-based games unless you launch them whilst the system time is changed.

Do I have to wait to time travel after someone invites my villager to live on their island?

No, and likewise, you don’t have to wait to time travel after inviting someone else’s villager to live on your island either.

Can I time travel to play events that have passed?

Yes, as of the 2.0.0 update, all events for all years of the game’s lifespan have been unlocked, including all seasonal Nook Stop items.

Player birthdays can only be experienced once every in-game year , and TTing back to the same birthday date won’t restore it. You must go to a future or past year.

I time traveled to Festive season, but why are none of the cedar trees decorated?

Make sure you have time traveled forward into the season (rather than backwards) and you have at least 1 cedar tree. For more information on how cedar trees are decorated, refer to the infographic here .

How do I time travel to farm an NPC visitor?

If the NPC is on a weekday except Monday:

• Toggle the date between the day the NPC is there and a day they are not. If you are farming an NPC that sends you gifts via mail, be sure to go forward to receive their rewards.

If the NPC is on a Monday:

• Time travel forward a day to Tuesday, then go back to Monday (after 5 AM)

Will my villagers move out if I time travel too much?

Nope! Though this was something that could happen in past installments of the game, villagers in New Horizons will not move out unless you give them explicit permission to do so.

Will my villagers dislike me/lose friendship points if I time travel too much?

Nope! They may have some dialogue about your disappearance if you do a big jump forward, but time traveling has no effect on friendship.

Do the developers know I time travel? Will they do anything to me about it?

There is actually a variable turned up by data mining called isTimeSly that determines whether or not the player has time traveled! With that said, there’s no indication whatsoever that the developers care, as there are no permanent in-game consequences or punishments for time traveling. Ultimately, it is your game, and you should play it however you want to!

What are BCAT or NTP unlocks?

BCAT and NTP unlocks are flags that gets flipped when the actual date of the intended release of an event or period has arrived in real time. Collectively, both of these are referred to as “time-locks”. There is no way to manually unlock these flags other than hacking the Switch. The difference between these two unlocks are:

*Note: These will likely not be used going forward as of the 2.0.0 update.

How-To Geek

How to time travel in "animal crossing: new horizons".

Have you ever wondered if you could advance forward to speed up construction in Animal Crossing: New Horizons? With time travel, you can!

Quick Links

What is time travel in animal crossing: new horizons, setting up time travel.

Time travel can be a messy subject for fans familiar with the Animal Crossing series---it's a game that is meant to be progressed and enjoyed in real time. But what if you could advance forward to speed up the process? Here's how in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons on the Nintendo Switch plays in real time, meaning that a day in the game is as long as a day in real life. If you want to speed up your progress, you can change the time settings on your Switch console.

Rather than waiting until the next real-world day, time-traveling lets you advance progress in the game for time-related events, such as new construction, growing fruit trees, and making Bells.

However, for seasonal events such as "Bunny Day," time travel cannot be used to activate the event. Your Nintendo Switch must be connected to Wi-Fi to sync with the internet to activate the event---so, time-skipping doesn't work for everything.

First and foremost, you'll want to completely close Animal Crossing: New Horizons on your Nintendo Switch. You can do this by hovering over the game on the Switch's Home screen, pressing the "X" button on your Joy-Con, and then selecting "Close".

Next, from the Switch's Home screen, go to the console's System Settings. The System Settings icon looks like a gear and is located between the Joy-con icon and the Power icon in the bottom toolbar.

Once you're inside the System Settings menu, scroll all the way down and select the "System" menu. Next, select the "Date and Time" option by pressing the "A" button on the right Joy-Con.

This sub-menu is where you change all of your time settings on the Nintendo Switch.

To customize the current time, select "Synchronize Clock Via Internet" to turn "Off" the automatic clock.

Change the date or the time to whatever you want and press "OK".

Navigate back to the Nintendo Switch Home screen by pressing the physical Home button on your right Switch Joy-Con and then launch the game.

When you launch Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the date and time will reflect the settings you changed in the Switch's "Date and Time" menu.

To turn the real-time sync back on, save and close the Animal Crossing: New Horizons game client, and navigate back to the "Date and Time" menu. Select "Synchronize Clock via Internet" to set it back to the "On" position.

Be careful about skipping too many days all at once in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Skipping forward weeks at a time will yield the same results as not playing for weeks at a time, such as losing your daily Nook Miles bonus at the Nook Stop, your villagers may move out, and weeds will move in.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons — Time travel guide

Animal Crossing: New Horizons , like previous installments in the series, runs in real-time. If an hour passes in the real world, it also passes in your game, whether you're playing or not. If Tom Nook says your house will be ready tomorrow, you have to wait until tomorrow for your house to be finished. Then again, you can trick the game into thinking time has passed using time travel. Time travel is not without its risks, and some would even say it's cheating; however, there are lots of reasons you might want to fast forward or rewind your island's clock. We here at iMore have all the details on how to use time travel in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Time traveling in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

While early reports suggested that Animal Crossing: New Horizons would not allow for time traveling, it didn't take players long to figure out how to accomplish this feat to some pretty impressive ends. By adjusting the time and date on your Switch, you can move your game forward or backward in time. Before you go jumping into the future, though, it's important to know that you can cause some significant and undesirable changes by skipping time.

Why would I want to time travel anyways?

Because Animal Crossing: New Horizons runs in real-time, there can be a lot of waiting around. Let's say a new villager just moved to your island. Well, you have to wait until they're finished unpacking to interact with them. Usually, this would mean checking back in after a day, but with time travel, you can skip straight to tomorrow and have a new villager to interact with.

While that might seem small, let's say it's something a little more important. Maybe you missed out on one of the weekly visitors. Did you miss ours on buying turnips this past Sunday ? Well, you can skip ahead and buy next Sunday's turnips right now. Maybe you want to skip to a certain time of year so you can catch specific fish or bugs . If you've caught all the fish or bugs available to you right now, you might want to jump to next month and try for something new.

What are the risks?

When traveling forward in time, the game will behave as though you simply hadn't played for the time skipped. If you're only skipping a day at a time, this isn't a big deal, but if you skip two months, you will find your island is overrun with weeds, and your villagers have moved away. You may even find cockroaches in your home! Basically, your island will be a dump if you go too far all at once. If you're trying to sell turnips, skipping to the next week will also make all your turnips rot, and going back in time won't fix them, either.

Time-traveling also won't let you take part in certain events. For example, the Museum Day Event runs from May 18 through May 21. If you jump to May 18 right now, you would not be able to take part in this event. Your Switch console's clock needs to be synchronized via Internet to take part in these types of events. This also means if you're time traveling and an event is happening right now, you cannot participate.

Time-traveling also doesn't make rare events any less rare. Say you time traveled in hopes of catching some finned fish that are only available in the summer. Having tested this myself, I can tell you those fish are pretty rare, and most of the time, you won't be catching the sharks you're looking for, but rather suckerfish or even more sea bass. I spent a few hours and more bait than I care to admit trying for sharks and managed to only come across one. I caught a few schools worth of sea bass, though.

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How does it work?

If you've read through all that and still want to time travel, the process is pretty easy. Just follow these easy steps:

• Press the - button to save and exit Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
• Press the Home button to return to the home screen.

• Press the X button to close Animal Crossing. Hint: this is critical! If you do not close Animal Crossing, the time jump will not happen!

• Tap the sun-shaped icon at the bottom of the screen to open the System Settings.

• Tap Date & Time

• Tap "Synchronize Clock via Internet to turn off time syncing.
• Change the date and/or time.
• Press the B button until you've returned to the home screen.
• Reopen Animal Crossing.

Just make sure you use your new power responsibly!

One last tip from a seasoned time traveler

If you do decide to time travel, the biggest piece of advice I can offer is make a daily checklist. This game is designed to be played daily, with things to do at any time of day. All those things might not be a priority for you, but it's easy to forget about some, especially the sporadic visitors who have no schedule to when they show up.

If you're skipping ahead to catch specific fish only available in the daytime, but aren't looking around at night, you're going to miss out on visits from Celeste . If you're not checking your secret beach for Jolly Redd's Treasure Trawler , your art gallery is going to suffer.

So, make a list of everything you want to do each day. Each day you skip ahead, check off each of those things.

Questions about time traveling?

Do you have any questions about using time travel in Animal Crossing: New Horizons? Want to show off your accomplishments? Drop us a comment below and be sure to check out our other Animal Crossing: New Horizons guides for all your Nook approved goodness!

○ Zelda outfits for Animal Crossing ○ How to make money fast ○ Multiplayer guide ○ How to become best friends ○ The NookPhone explained ○ What is NookLink? ○ Can you play Animal Crossing on Nintendo Switch Lite? ○ Every Animal Crossing amiibo ○ Best Animal Crossing Switch accessories

Casian Holly has been writing about gaming at iMore since 2019, but their real passion is Pokémon. From the games to the anime, cards and toys, they eat, sleep, and breathe all things Pokémon. You can check out their many Pokémon Go and Pokémon Sword and Shield guides and coverage here on iMore.

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Time travel

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Time travel [1] refers to the player manually changing the time of their game or game system to immediately return to, or advance to, a specific point in time. There are both positive and negative consequences of time traveling across the Animal Crossing series.

• 1 Developers' perspectives
• 2.1 In Animal Crossing
• 2.2 In Animal Crossing: Wild World
• 2.3 In Animal Crossing: City Folk
• 2.4 In Animal Crossing: New Leaf
• 2.5 In Animal Crossing: New Horizons
• 3 References

Developers' perspectives [ edit ]

Time traveling is not considered "cheating" by the games developers, although they do discourage it for the most enjoyable casual experience. Series producer Hisashi Nogami stated that he and director Aya Kyogoku "think that in order for the players to play for a very long time, and also for players to share the experience with their friends or family, we do think that playing without traveling would probably be the ideal way." At the same time, they did not intend for seasonal updates to be a way to "shun away time travel," simply to keep the game enjoyable throughout the year. [1]

Animal Crossing: New Leaf director Isao Moro similarly stated that "I'm sure there are plenty of players who have fiddled with the clock when playing the game, but this is a shame as a really nice aspect of Animal Crossing is the sense of unity that comes from time passing in sync with the real world. It means that everyone gets to share that sense of the seasons and the time passing, so we were keen to retain that element of the game." This was part of the inspiration for him and Kyogoku to implement the town ordinances that change the operating hours of shops and bedtimes of villagers, to still allow the player "to adjust things to fit [their] own lifestyle." [2]

In-game properties [ edit ]

In animal crossing [ edit ].

In Animal Crossing , the player can adjust the time and date using two methods: either by changing the Nintendo GameCube clock, or accessing the in-game clock during the start-up sequence. Changing the system clock provides the least interference with gameplay, as the in-game clock dictates the growth of trees , the way letters are sent, and how the police station and dump restock items. While the furthest date supported by the system clock is December 31, 2099, the highest the in-game clock can go is December 31, 2030, after which the date will reset to January 1, 2030. (In Doubutsu no Mori , due to the Nintendo 64 not having an internal clock, the game uses a battery-powered clock in the cartridge that can only be changed in-game.)

The ability to travel to any date immediately allows the player to attend any event , access any fish or bugs , or purchases any seasonal items that are restricted to certain dates or date ranges. By time traveling forward, letters can be received sooner, but the player's mailbox may fill completely, which prevents incoming mail until the mailbox is emptied. Additionally, the process of a villager moving out from the player's town can be expedited, as well as new villagers moving in. Time traveling forward can also force fruit to regrow on trees and stores to refresh their current item selection.

Time traveling any amount, forward or backward, causes all turnips in the player's pockets or storage to rot. Weeds will grow at a faster rate if time traveling, and too many weeds can harm the town's environment rating until enough weeds are removed (however, all weeds can be removed by Wisp if the player catches his Spirits and asks to "Pull weeds!"). Time traveling forward may result in villagers moving away without asking the player, or cause the player to miss events , birthdays , or One Day Sales from Tom Nook's store .

In Animal Crossing: Wild World [ edit ]

The player can also change the time and date in Wild World through the Nintendo DS system clock or the in-game menu. The furthest date supported by both the system and game is December 31, 2099, after which time will reset back to January 1, 2000.

Time traveling to future months now allows the player to accrue interest on their savings account.

In Animal Crossing: City Folk [ edit ]

Animal Crossing: City Folk also allows the time and date to be changed by changing the Nintendo Wii system time or editing the in-game time during the start-up sequence. While changing the time via the in-game settings will affect fruit and weed growth, flower wilting, and savings account interest, changing the system time does not. The furthest date is now December 31, 2035; after this, time loops back to January 1, 2000.

In City Folk , the player can once again use Wisp to remove weeds. Additionally, time traveling can now cause bed head , which affects the player's hairstyle.

In Animal Crossing: New Leaf [ edit ]

Time and date settings in New Leaf can be edited through the Nintendo 3DS system clock, or through the start-up sequence by telling Isabelle "I need help first...". The furthest date is December 31, 2050, after which time resets to January 1, 2012.

Any processes relating to building, demolishing, or moving infrastructure (such as bridges , Public works projects , or buildings in Main Street ) can be completed immediately by time traveling to a different day. Any facilities that require multiple days of commitment, such as talking to Sable to access the sewing machine , can also be unlocked more quickly.

The Beautiful Town ordinance can prevent weeds from spawning and flowers from wilting, removing these consequences from time traveling. Weeds can also be cleared using Leif 's weed-pulling service if his Garden Shop is available. However, time traveling will cause Phineas to not appear for a while. [ citation needed ]

In Animal Crossing: New Horizons [ edit ]

New Horizons is the first game in the series that does not have an in-game option to change the time. However, by disabling "Synchronize Clock Via Internet" in the Nintendo Switch system settings, the system time can be manually changed, which is reflected in the game. The furthest date supported by the system is December 31, 2060, and while the game can progress into January 1, 2061, going beyond this date will result in an error message, warning the user that the date is unsupported and that they should set their time in between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2060. [3]

As seasonally restricted content has expanded to DIY recipes and Nook Shopping seasonal events , the associated items can also be obtained at any time via time travel. Time traveling to previous visits by shopkeepers such as Redd will re-roll their stock, allowing the player to purchase new items from them. In 1.9.0 , traveling back in time five days or more resets the visiting special characters for the target week. In all other versions (both before and after), this limit is only in place if the target and present date are in different months. Outside of version 1.9.0, NPC visitors fill up seven slots within a given week after the day moves from Sunday to Monday. Time traveling between specific days in a given week will initiate that specific visitor (e.g., Leif will always be present on Tuesday unless the day moves to another Monday).

Villagers will no longer move out without notice after longer periods of time, now requiring the player's explicit permission to leave. Weeds still occasionally spawn on the island, but they will no longer negatively impact the environment rating unless the quantity of weeds on the island is above 100. In addition, Rafflesia no longer spawn in islands with the worst rating. Bed head has been changed to be only temporary, and is now unlocked as a hairstyle option when it occurs for the first time. However, in addition to turnips rotting after any time traveling, turnip prices will reset if time traveling backwards. Flowers may end up overpopulating the island by either duplicating or breeding if nothing is done to prevent new flowers from spawning in grass or dirt tiles. Overgrowth of weeds can again be dealt with using Leif's weeding service if his commune is available on Harv's Island .

Before version 2.0 , events were more difficult to experience by using time travel, as many events were gradually introduced through updates . Some events were unable to be accessed until their real-world starting date, such as Bunny Day , Nature Day , May Day , International Museum Day , Wedding Season , Turkey Day , Toy Day , and Festivale . Events could also be locked after being unlocked in a previous year, such as Bunny Day's date range of April 1–12, 2020 being disabled in the 1.9.0 Free Update in favor of the new dates of March 28–April 4, 2021. Since version 2.0 , all events can now occur every year; however, as of version 1.9.0 , the Nature Day event is no longer accessible, due to its replacement by the Nature Day Nook Shopping seasonal event .

References [ edit ]

• ↑ 1.0 1.1 Elise Favis (March 23, 2020). "Nintendo explains philosophy behind Animal Crossing’s big changes, such as gender expression and terraforming" . The Washington Post . Retrieved Septe,ber 23, 2022.
• ↑ Nintendo (2012). "Iwata Asks - Animal Crossing: New Leaf" . Iwata Asks . Retrieved September 23, 2022.
• ↑ If you GO to 2061, this happens There is a WARNING message that I 've never seen where I can't go!?
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Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Is Time Traveling Worth It?

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Time traveling in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a contentious issue. The practice allows players to bypass the inbuilt slow pace of the game by manipulating their game time using the Switch's date and time settings.

For those who are impatient, time traveling can negate waiting time built into the game for certain actions to complete. However, there are consequences to consider. Here, we take a look at the pros and cons of time traveling to figure out if it's worth it.

Saving Time And Making Bells

One of the most appealing reasons to use time travel is either to make bells or quickly complete other aspects of the game. The main popular early-game trick was adjusting the date to rack up huge amounts of in-game interest using the ABD system. However, wise to this, Nintendo recently patched in a nerf to the interest rates so the rate is now 0.0005% with a maximum payout of 9,999, instead of 0.5% with a maximum of 99,000, making the cheat redundant.

Time travel can also be used to play the Stalk Market, although players can only go forward in time with turnips – so they are taking a risk. If the clock is reverted back to Sunday after a sale is made, the turnip sales pattern will also be randomized again. This means that replaying a week won't allow you to predict the prices, although you could still sell elsewhere.

Due to the fact that all changes to your island can be saved and don't revert once the clock is adjusted, money can also be made by using time travel to reset resource collection; revisit NPCs to sell items at a premium price and grow money trees quickly.

RELATED: Animal Crossing: New Horizons Player Discovers An Unnerving Glitch In The Game

Selective Time Travel

Time travel can also be used on a smaller scale. This includes going forward and backward by a day or so in order to complete bridges and inclines, evict villagers, collect mail, and get instant building upgrades.

Other low-level uses include putting the clock back a few hours to reopen shops, so you don't miss out on the rotating daily items for sale in both Nook's Cranny and the Able Sisters store.

Destroying The Game's Enjoyment

The biggest disadvantage of time travel is that you actually risk destroying your enjoyment of the game. Animal Crossing isn't meant to be completed in a week, it's designed to be enjoyed over a long period of time.

While you can sit for hours, time-traveling to complete your museum DIY collection and island design, what do you do next? There are some aspects of the game you cannot access through time travel, mainly Seasonal Events which are patched in and out in New Horizons , but if others are rushed what's left – except to create Danny Devito Island ?

In our current society, there is a "now" culture that has led to players rushing to complete things as quickly as possible. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is supposed to be an escape from that. Without time travel it may take many months to achieve certain things and that's ok. It's designed to be played in small amounts each day as you slowly build up relationships, collections, and your island. Just experiencing all the seasons and seasonal events in real-time will take a year and that's by design. Animal Crossing is for life, not just for the month of release.

RELATED: Animal Crossing Redditor Turned Their Game Into Harvest Moon

Consequences

Nintendo still allows for time travel, but also puts some systems in place to discourage excessive use. As well as the Seasonal Event and Stalk Market restrictions we've mentioned, there are other disadvantages.

If you're time traveling for just a day or two at once, then the consequences are mostly small-scale. You could lose your Nook Stop Streak Bonus and your weeds may be more prolific.  However, once you start traveling for weeks at a time these consequences increase.

Your home can become infested with cockroaches and those weeds will heavily increase, tanking both your home and island rating. Furthermore your mailbox can fill up; villagers are likely to feel neglected and leave and your character will develop delightful bedhead.

The Verdict

While time travel is a perfectly legitimate way of playing the game, the true verdict here is that by time-traveling – you are actually only cheating yourself. The process takes a huge amount of the game's heart away, leaving you with an experience that is likely to feel less satisfying than playing the game the way Nintendo intended.

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Sources: NintendoLife IGN

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Time passes slowly in  Animal Crossing: New Horizons when playing a little bit every day. Unlike simulation games like Stardew Valley or  Story of Seasons , the clock in most  Animal Crossing games is determined by real-time. This means 3PM in-game is 3PM in real life, and a new day won't start until midnight. However, for those who don't want to go at a leisurely pace when upgrading their home or shooing out an unwanted villager, time travel could be a useful solution.

There are only so many tasks a player can do in a single day on their  Animal Crossing island. Items change daily at Nook's Cranny and Able Sisters, dig spots generate randomly on the island every morning, and message bottles only spawn on beaches once per day. While these may not be big enough reasons to attempt to change the date on the calendar, island upgrades can definitely be worth it. Shops, villager homes, and personal home upgrades all take several days to complete. Players working on a new  Animal Crossing: New Horizons  island design , or trying to get a new villager quickly, can choose to skip forward a few days to speed up construction.

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Using  time travel in  Animal Crossing: New Horizons is actually quite simple. Players will only need to go to their Nintendo Switch system settings and turn off the "Synchronize Clock Via Internet" option. Afterward, the date and time can be set to any point in the year. Players can choose to jump forward a day or two in order to complete a project or even jump to a different month in the year to capture out-of-season bugs and fish for their museum displays.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Time Tavel Can Cause Cockroaches

While it may seem like cheating to jump days or months to speed up tasks, there actually aren't many consequences for using time travel in  Animal Crossing: New Horizons . Jumping forward or backward several weeks can cause the player to wake up with bedhead, and potentially lead to an infestation of cockroaches in the house that must be smashed, but these are more to mark the passage of time than to act as a punishment. The bigger struggle can be the accidental spoiling of Turnips purchased before a large skip, or straining relationships with  Animal Crossing villagers a player doesn't want to lose.

While players can speed up many aspects of gameplay, using time travel to skip to seasonal  Animal Crossing events can be a mixed bag. Most seasonal events are part of upgrades released shortly before the event day occurs, and while it is possible to jump ahead after the update has been released, events well in the future won't always be accurate or accessible. Special items in the Nook Shopping seasonal items tab also won't be available, as these are tied to updates as well. Because time travel in  Animal Crossing: New Horizons has few setbacks, choosing to jump forward or keep the clock in real-time is entirely up to player preference.

Next:  Animal Crossing Desperately Needs Substantial New Content Updates

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• Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Animal Crossing New Horizons Time Travel Guide

Alter some Nintendo Switch Settings to Time Travel in ACNH.

Time Travel in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is important as it allows you to skip the real-time pacing of the game and progress quickly. You can do many things with time travel, like making Bells , Breeding Flowers fast, and gathering other resources.

However, with benefits, there are also some consequences. You don’t have to worry; I will cover how to Time Travel in Animal Crossing New Horizons and the benefits or consequences of traveling.

How to Time Travel in Animal Crossing New Horizons

Time Traveling is pretty easy; all you need to do is change the system time in your Nintendo Switch.

• First of all, save your progress and quit the game. After this, you must enter the System Settings (Gear Icon) on your Nintendo Switch.
• Scroll down, and you will find “ System. ” Select Date and Time here, and you will find the “ Synchronize Clock Via Internet ” setting at the top. Ensure that you turn it off so you can time travel.
• Once done, change the Date and Time, hit “ Ok ,” and restart the game to Time Travel.

It is entirely safe, and you will not get banned for time travel. However, the community does frown upon doing this. As you know how to Time Travel, let’s discuss some of its benefits so you can utilize it better.

Benefits of Time Traveling

You should time travel in ACNH for many reasons. I will go over all of them so you can also benefit from them.

• Build or Grow Instantly: With Time travel, you can instantly skip construction time and get what you need. For example, you can upgrade your house on the same day. The same goes for if you are growing something.
• Make Special NPCs Appear: You can also use this feature to skip the day and see if a special NPC like Flick or Gulliver appears to buy items you need. You can skip a day and return to buy from them again. You can also use Time Travel to buy Turnips from Daisy Mae.
• Refresh Able Sisters Collection: If you don’t like what Able Sisters are selling, you can skip the day to get a new Selection.
• Play both Day and Night: If you cannot play at some time of the day because of your routine, you can time travel and experience both light and dark in ACNH.
• Make a Lot of Money From Interest: Put as much money as you want in the ABD bank and Time Travel backward. After this, exit the game and, this time, jump forward to earn a lot of Bells as Interest. The limit that you can hit once is 99,999 Bells .
• Catch Up with Friends: If your friends are playing it a lot before you and ahead of time, you can use Time Travel to Catch Up with them and enjoy the game together.

Besides these, you can always use Time Travel to replenish resources so you can get a lot of resources in a single day.

What are the consequences of Time Travel in ACNH

The consequences of Time Traveling are not that bad if you look at the benefits it offers. But still, the following are the downsides of Time Travel, and you need to think about these before skipping too many days in ACNH.

The first downside of time traveling is you can end up getting rid of Villagers in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The main reason is that you spend too much time without talking to them. Villagers feel neglected and will eventually leave your village. Avoid this by ensuring you don’t use progress ahead months at a time through time travel and speak to your villagers frequently.

While Time Traveling, if you skip time past the next Sunday, the Turnips you bought from Daisy Mae will get rotten. Moreover, your home will get infested with Cockroaches, and weeds will grow everywhere on the Island. The Flowers will continue to breed , and you may have too many.

You will not get Nook Miles from the Nook Stop bonus streak, as that will only work if you use the machine daily. The streak will break if you skip more than a day without collecting Nook Miles.

Besides that, your mailbox will also pile up if you don’t read letters and skip a long time. You can also not participate in holiday-based events as these will require you to verify time with the internet , which you can’t do because you turned off the “ Synchronize Clock Via Internet ” setting. If you want to participate in these events, you must turn this setting on.

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Arslan Shah is junior editor at SegmentNext.com, a video games addict with more than a decade spent honing the craft. He is a roleplaying video games enthusiast and loves a good story driven RPG.

Animal Crossing New Horizons: how to time travel to cheat, and what's at risk if you do

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is in keeping with long-held series traditions in that it's all about the passage of real-world time - but the impatient islanders can time travel as a cheat, if you're so inclined. Maybe you missed your bestie's birthday, forgot about a special event, or just didn't have time to play for a week. Here's what can happen if you choose to time travel in Animal Crossing: New Horizons too.

The world of Animal Crossing has always been built around the idea that it runs in real-time, right alongside the real world. There's no sped-up video game day-to-night cycles here - a minute in the real world is a minute in Animal Crossing, too. A day, likewise. Characters have birthdays to celebrate on certain dates, and the game's wide selection of wildlife detailed on our fish list and bug list change - so in a few days at the end of the March a bunch of fish and bugs will disappear until later in the year.

There is a way around this, however - you can time travel, but it comes at a cost . Time Travel isn't built into Animal Crossing New Horizons - it requires manipulating the game and technically counts as cheating. No TARDIS or DeLorean required.

Using time travel will speed up certain things - so it means you'll be able to build new buildings and infrastructure faster , sell turnips more often , harvest fruit to make lots of cash more frequently and even do things like help out Gulliver and rescue Wisp more often, as that'd strictly be once a day - and not every day at that. Even things like your Nook Miles rewards , many of which are delivered the next day, will of course arrive sooner with time travel.

The flip side of time travel is that you actually risk on missing out on some stuff. So you have to weigh that up against what you'll gain...

How to time travel and change the date and time in Animal Crossing New Horizons

We want to be clear: while it can be done, we don't really advocate time travel in Animal Crossing. It is a game designed to be played slowly, little by little, over a very long period of time. Nintendo agrees with this, which is why the game is explicitly designed against it. Special events, like the upcoming Easter event, are delivered via online patch - so if you time travel, you'll miss out on such events .

If you still want to time travel, here's how to do it:

• Go to your Switch home menu and make sure you close Animal Crossing New Horizons completely. The game must be off.
• Now go to the Switch system settings using the Cog icon on the home screen. In the settings menu, select 'System'.
• In the System menu there's an option for the Date and Time; turn off the setting that syncs the clock up with the internet and change the date and time as desired.
• The next time you boot Animal Crossing New Horizons, it'll be set to the new date. Simple!
• If you want to reset the date again, remember to close the game before repeating the process

If you want a little more help playing the game legitimately, be sure to check out our Animal Crossing New Horizons guide , which covers pretty much everything you need to know to speed things up without hopping through time.

Read this next

• Everyone's favourite singing dog is next up on the Lego Animal Crossing docket
• Keen to see Dragon Age get a Fallout-style TV series? Well, its former lead writer would rather watch an Animal Crossing political thriller
• A new volume of the Animal Crossing manga is finally out in the UK

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Animal Crossing now limits time travel a bit

You can still do it, though

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While controversial for some, adjusting your Nintendo Switch’s clock to fast-forward the time or day in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a tradition that stretches back since the beginning of the series. But with the game’s big winter update , fans say that Nintendo has changed what you can and can’t do while time traveling .

First, the good news: You can still time travel. What’s changed, according to many time-traveling players, is that Nintendo has tweaked — or rather, reinforced — how events work. Previously, the company announced that you would be unable to trigger big seasonal events ahead of time , because the game would actually check if your clock was correct. But, as many fans found out, Nintendo wasn’t consistent in enforcing these rules. For example, prior to this new update, you could time travel to Halloween and enjoy the festivities. A handful of recent events have worked this way as well.

No more! Polygon tested it out, and you can’t just adjust your clock to make it Turkey Day (aka Thanksgiving) anytime you’d like. Fans are reporting that you can still travel backward to events that have already transpired in the real world, but you cannot experience new content by jumping forward.

Some fans are rolling with the punches here, and aren’t bothered by Nintendo doing exactly what the company said it would do. Plus, it’s not as huge of a deal if you can still go back and enjoy things later; the only limitation is in getting there faster. Others, meanwhile, bemoan the change — because there are legitimate reasons to time travel in the first place.

“This really sucks for people with busy schedules who don’t have time to do all of the events right when they take place,” one player wrote on a Facebook group dedicated to time-traveling fans . “Especially for events like Toy Day and Turkey Day/the Harvest Festival when people are going to be spending time with their loved ones ... I know you can go back and do them, but it just doesn’t feel the same. Doing them before feels a lot more festive because everyone is still exited about the event.”

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